30 November 2014

McDonnell -- De La Bourdonnais 1834: Index

I am working my way through all of the available games of Alexander McDonnell (1798-1835). Most of these were part of his six matches with Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais (1795-1840). These matches were played at the Westminster Chess Club in London. William Greenwood Walker, club secretary, recorded the games and published them in A Selection of Games at Chess (London: 1836). Thanks to Walker, these matches became the first between chess masters for which we have a record of the moves.

The matches have come to be regarded as an unofficial World Championship and the beginning of modern chess history. Paul Morphy annotated some of the games for a chess column that he wrote for the New York Ledger in 1859-1860.

I annotated all 25 games of the first match without reference to engine analysis and with minimal reference to annotations by others. Now, I plan to work my way through the annotations of these games in Cary Utterberg, De la Bourdonnais versus McDonnell, 1835 (2005).

Utterberg offers a narrative of the historical milieu, a compendium of comments on the games by other chess writers, and his own analysis. Of particular interest, perhaps, is Utterberg's summation of the state of opening theory when the match took place. His analysis is deeper, more extensive, and better informed than mine.

This post offers links to my posts of the games in the matches between these two players..

Youth Chess

Scholastic players and parents: The label "Problem of the Week" links to posts that contain my "lesson of the week." These blog posts serve to reinforce what is presented in my after school and in-school chess clubs.

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